Standards

We are currently using the third edition of the Standards for Adult Inpatient Learning Services to review and accredit services. We believe that it is important our standards reflect the issues that make a difference to the experience of the person using the service. For this reason, the standards follow a pathway through care and include how the service communicates with the patient, their carers and other agencies.

The purpose is to assess whether the ward is able to provide a collaborative, purposeful and safe admission with a focus on recovery and discharge planning from the point of admission.

The standards cover six domains:

Admission and assessment

Care planning and treatment

Safety, discharge, capacity and consent

Patient and carer experience

Environment and facilities

Leadership, workforce and governance

How the standards are developed

The current set of standards was published in 2016. A revised edition is currently being developed and will be published in 2019.

The standards are developed in consultation with experts in the field and combine information from a variety of sources.

CCQI Core Standards

The standards must incorporate the College Centre for Quality Improvement (CCQI) Core Standards. These are developed by our expert advisory groups, and have been refined in consultation with front-line staff, patients, carers, other interested groups such as national charities and professional bodies.

National requirements

We recognise that services are under increased pressure to demonstrate that they comply with national policies and guidelines. For this reason our standards incorporate requirements and recommendations set out nationally.

This means that the process of accreditation will enable your service to demonstrate where it is currently meeting national requirements and will support the service to meet them where it is not currently.

'Good Practice Principle'

We know that those who work in the field have the most comprehensive understanding of the issues and challenges that they face in providing high quality care. For this reason we consult with representatives from relevant disciplines to establish an expert consensus on what constitutes best quality care.

Research and other guidelines

We want our standards to reflect the most up to date published research and guidance on best practice. By incorporating these into our standards we hope that this will in turn help services to ensure they are continuing maintain the highest level of care.

To learn about how we measure services against our standards, go to our page on how QNLD works.

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